Erwin and Dorits' Endless Summer

Bondi Beach

The first day we stayed in Bondi. A very crowded part of town with a beach wellknown for the real-life soap on television about its lifesavers. Of course we had to surf here. That evening we had a nice hot shower and delicious dinner at Erins’ and Marks’ place. (Erin –who met Dorit 7 years ago- visited us back in Aachen when she was in Europe 3 years ago). From England she took Mark home with her…;o) Later that week we would meet them again and once more had a great time and the best burger ever.                

Sydney

Being in Sydney we had to go to “Circular Key”, the centre of the town with its famous “Opera House” and “Harbour Bridge”. At lunchtime “The Rocks” near the bridge is a good place to go. In one of the many restaurants we met Yarna, Dorits’ “australian” sister, and had a kangaroo pizza.

The next 3 nights we stayed in Cronaulla with Anna and Jarred (Dorit’s australian host mother and brother, where she lived 10 years ago). Jarred took us around and showed us the beautiful suroundings of Cronulla with its sandy and rocky beaches and pretty inlet with little boat yetties.

We applied for our Indonesian visa in Maroubra and had a coffee at the beach. A beach known among surfers because of the local “Bra-Boys”. Unfornatuly the surf and weather that day were bad and it wasn’t worth getting wet.

Lunch at Sonja's place

On friday we visited Sonja Jansen, a pen friend from Erwins’ dad Ad. She already had let him know that she would be pleased to have us over for lunch. It turned out to be something we did not expacted in the first place. A 6 hour visit with lunch, sangria, coffee, cake, selfmade plum pudding and a lots of laughing.

Our last days in Sydney we spend in Manly and in Curl Curl surfing and slowly travelling up the coast.

Surfing with Mark @ Bondi

Wish you al the best for 2010. Thank you for following us. We are allways happy to read your comments. Looking forward to hear from you!
Love Dorit & Erwin

Sunset in Eden, on our way to Merimbula

From Phillip Island we drove 600 km to the east coast. Our first stop was Merimbula, a beautiful little city. Unfortunaltly surf there is very rare.  We stayed for the weekend and headed  up north to the Murramarang Natinal Park enclosing Pretty Beach and Pebbly Beach. We stayed at a campsite south of the National Park which was free. After parking the car a wallabi joined us, which was very interested in what we had cooked. It was a very pretty campground, it took us 30 minutes on a winding dirt road through the forest

Brekky in Merimbula

to get there and was right next to a beach. The next day we visited Pretty beach, to find out that there were no waves but a lot of kangeroos.

camping in national park

We kept driving and ended up in a city called Ulladulla. Next to it lies Mollymook, where we stayed the night and went surfing the next morning. There were just two other people in the water. Erwin started talking to one of them. He was telling us that he had a knie replacement just a couple of months ago and was allready back in the water with

Dorit and Cliff at the campground

a body board. Of course this was interesting for us being physios. He told Erwin that he actually should be on a plane to Hawaii to watch his son compete on the surf world tour. Erwin asked: “Who is your son?” And the guy introduced himself as Mr. Fanning. 4 days later his son was world champion! Congratualations Mr. Fanning.

Fresh fisch on the bbq in Kiama

Surfspot "the Farm" in national park

The next day we travelled further to Kiama. There was a little bay where we could surf. We got fish from the Fishshop at the port and had a BBQ. We explored the area and ended up staying at Bombo Beach. Surfed here for 3 days before we went to Sydney.

Five weeks ago, near Adelaide, we met an american guy who is travelling through Australia aswell and surfs. We met him again (this when the coinsidence starts) in Apollo Bay about almost a week later and 600km further. We talked about what we did and what our plans were. We would actually head in the same direction as he did.

The third time we met Chris was a week later, 120km further in Torque at Black Beach (coinsidence?). This time our conversation was about shark attacks. Erwin was telling him the story about a shark attack in Margret River that we heard of on the west coast. A guy standing next to us interrupted and asked if we were talking about the attack at Magret River. He knew the story because he used to live there (coinsidence?). We talked about it for a while and it was very funny at that moment. We met Chris and David again the next day at Bells Beach (tiny coinsidence…;O)). Nice to have a little chat to someone, other than Dorit…:o) After the swell dropped (no waves anymore) we went to Melbourne to see the city and meet some people. One of those was Lisa, one of Dorits’ friends when she went to highschool in Australia 10 years ago. She moved to Melbourne a few mounths ago. Lisa is an upcommig DJ in the techno house scene in Australia. After Melbourne we went to Phillip Island and were lucky to find some waves again. The next morning waking up at the car park, we met David (from Margaret River) for the third time (coinsidence? wait!). It was thursday morning, so I asked David if he was travelling as we are. He said: ”No”, and said that he actually lives in Melbourne. (Melbourne lies in the middle of Torquay/Bells Beach and Phillip Island and it’s about 1 1/2 hour drive to either of them). We talked a bit to find out that David had been to Holland and Germany many times. He explained later that he was a professional DJ and playing at the love parade and in clubs in Holland. When we told Dr. Willis –which is his DJ name- that we were at a friends place 2 days ago who also is into that kind of music, he said: “Lisa? Oh yeah, I know Lisa.” When we told Lisa that we met Dr. Willis she said:” How do YOU know him? He is a famous DJ in Australia!”  COINSIDENCE?

We will let you know if we meet Chris again……;o)

Phillip Island

Enough city, time for nature, beach and waves! From Melbourne our van drove us to Phillip Island. Well known for its circuit, where every year motorbikes race for the grand prix. Some part of the island is ‚National Park” where pinguins come on land after sunset to their homes. Their bellys full of fish, they gather into groups to walk across the beach to the sand dunes. Sometimes their belly’s are that full that they have trouble walking up the beach falling forward all the time. Hilarious! You are not allowed to take any photos of these litlle funny pinguins, because the flashes will scare them.

.. wrong home

Two days later after the wind ruined the waves at Wallamai Beach where we had surfed and sleept the last two days we went to see the sea lions, but on our way we saw people surfing little clean waves. We got in our wetsuit and in the water. After our surfsession, Dorit had some company at the ladies toilet (see photo). We took the photo of course without flash, but he was scared anyway. We called the Ranger who just said: “Oh, don’t worry, they do that al the time, they think it is their home.”

swamp wallaby

Melbourne city

After weeks of small beachtowns, surfing and campsites in the bush, we were going to Melbourne. Our first goal was to find the campsite where Bruce and Sharon stayed in a place called Dandenong. As Dorit thought that  we did not have a map of Melbourne in our Road atlas, we tried it with Bruce giving us directions. The easiest way would be using a highway which you had to pay for. Paying wasn’t like in France where you actually pay at a counter, we had to call and give all your details to a computer who does not understand people with a foreign accent like us. Very frustrating.

We arrived at the campsite and Sharon found that we actually had a map of Melbourne, the one we thought wasn’t there;-) We had a nice evening with Bruce and Sharon. And for the next couple of days we could use the campsite showers and laundry whitout costs, what a luxuary.Exploring Melbourne took us a few days. We cruised around in the free tourist trams and busses. We visited several city parts, often dominated by a certain country as in China, Italy, Spain or Greece.

Dorit & Lisa: happy faces!!

Monday we were invited to have lunch at Lisa’s (Dorit’s friend from high school) We actually ended up having our first Aussie BBQ. Erwin loved it. Thanks Lisa…;o)

Sweeeet Sugarlumps

After some more sightseeing the next day we met up with Jess, Tim’s girlfriend who we met in Dunbury in West Australia earlier on our trip. She moved to Melbourne after we get to know her. We went to a cafe/bar/club with a realy nice atmosphere, played some life-on-stage-travia (not knowing the answer to one single question…:o/ ), tried the local beer and had a good time.

After five days we left Melbourn. Enough of the city, time for the beach again!